"... authors expected to attract the most attention and resources from consumers are given the most attention and resources by their publishers..."
This is true. I had a novel come out the same month a Marion Zimmer Bradley novel came out. Guess who got the resources?
However, my novel sold through its first printing.
That said, on long reflection, I realize now that my last name put my novel on the same shelf in the bookstore as her novel.
It is, however, the nature of the business. It takes savvy editors to look beyond the bean counters, and those do exist! A good agent that has a good report with said editors can help.
In this day and age, you can also self-publish without branding yourself as a vanity publisher, getting yourself blacklisted by the big NY publishers. If making reasonable money while writing is a goal, it doesn't take all that many diehard fans to achieve this end. A couple self-pub author friends set the lower limit at around 1000. Remember, you keep all your profits, less editorial, art, and publicity costs, minus taxes. It is a lot of work, though.